CHAPTER VI 



A LITTLE ABOUT TERRACES AND THEIR 

 TREATMENT 



^T^HE castles and houses of landed gentry 

 in Europe were often built, in earliest 

 times, with terraces, which served as a view- 

 point, a place to walk and take the air, and 

 for the beginnings of gardening which were 

 carried on in some sheltered corner of the 

 terrace between the castle, or house, and the 

 surrounding walls. Here the monks in the 

 monastery first grew herbs and simples, a few 

 flowers, and the earliest cultivated vegetables 

 and fruits. Here, in the unsettled times of 

 the Middle Ages, the women of the house- 

 hold took their recreation, and found a refuge 

 from the eternal tapestry web or singing to 

 the lute, and also tended the herbs with which 

 cooling draughts and healing dressings were 



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